Last 3 months headlines – Page 1315
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The 2012 Finance bill and capital allowances: no time for complacency
The new rules on capital allowances in commercial property are now in effect with the passing of the 2012 Finance bill. These rules will greatly affect commercial property owners, leaseholders and importantly, their lawyers. The central change is the introduction of mandatory pooling of capital ...
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Poor marketing opens the doors for sharks!
Regular blog readers may recall the relative who needed a lasting power of attorney, several months ago and was confused by the way prices were quoted. At the time of her initial enquiry, she also enquired about changing the way their property was held, amending their wills and advice regarding ...
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How much is your practice worth?
As the legal market expands - as all markets do when deregulation is applied - who will be benefiting from this growth? Predictions are that the numbers of solicitors will decline - but, as the legal sector grows, why should this be? Fundamentally, we have too ...
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Insurers propose £150 portal fixed fee as ‘negotiating tactic’
The insurance industry has proposed that fixed fees for low-value claims be set as low as £150, the Gazette can reveal. A leaked email, apparently sent to members of the Association of British Insurers by the ABI’s assistant head of motor and liability James Dalton, calls ...
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Solicitors highlight five mySRA failings
Solicitors have pinpointed five key failings of the online practising certificate renewal system. MySRA was used for all PC renewals for the first time this year but suffered a host of technical problems. In a survey of law firms carried out following the renewal deadline, solicitors ...
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LASPO goes on the statute book
The controversial Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act received royal assent today, 11 months after it was introduced to parliament. Part 1 of the act paves the way for cuts to the scope of and eligibility for legal aid; part 2 reforms conditional fee agreements. Both come into ...
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Clarke to announce whiplash curbs
The government will this week set out tougher measures in a bid to cut the number of whiplash claims. Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke and transport secretary Justine Greening will jointly outline plans to reform the diagnosis procedure. In a statement to be made on Wednesday, the ...
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Regulation of will-writers will affect solicitors too
The solicitors’ profession was punching the air in celebration last week when the Legal Services Board announced its intention to finally bring will-writing into the regulatory fold.
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Whiplash compensation needs linking to rehabilitation
When it comes to whiplash it seems the insurance industry is obsessed with trying to drive out costs from the existing system rather than trying to improve the system itself. One online comment from Paul valuably highlighted the history of how whiplash was previously assessed ...
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Minimum wage for Scottish trainees
Trainee solicitors in Scotland are set to be paid the national minimum wage of £6.08 an hour or more from June 2012, the Law Society of Scotland (LSS) has announced. The announcement came the same day that the LSS agreed a proposed cut in council member ...
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Herbert Smith cuts City jobs
City firm Herbert Smith has confirmed it plans to cut staff numbers at its London headquarters by 51. The redundancies, which represent 3.2% of the total London headcount, were announced to staff today as a consultation period was started. The proposed reductions would come principally from ...
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CoA ruling makes parent companies liable for subsidiaries’ health and safety
Parent companies have a responsibility for the health and safety of their subsidiaries’ employees, the Court of Appeal has ruled in a groundbreaking case. The judgment comes after a retired factory worker successfully sued his former employer’s parent company after contracting asbestosis. Cape, which owned ...
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From the wild frontiers, where IT meets law
Here are some reports from the expanding frontier of legal practice. As is often the case with technology, they come from the USA.
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Mesothelioma U-turn is a pyrrhic victory
Journalists are sometimes accused of misquoting people (not me, you understand, just in case Lord Justice Leveson is reading). So let me give Jonathan Djanogly an opportunity to be quoted in full, without amendments. Here is the justice minister, speaking in the House of Commons, on ...
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Russell Jones & Walker approved as ABS
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has cleared the Australian takeover of top-100 firm Russell Jones & Walker by licensing it as an alternative business structure (ABS), it announced today. RJW, acquired by Slater & Gordon earlier this year, is the fifth ABS firm to be ...
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Solicitor judges get their own network
The Law Society is to create a new membership section - the Solicitor Judges Division - to create a community of solicitor judges. The division, which will be launched at Chancery Lane on 9 May, is intended to provide opportunities for networking and supporting solicitors in their judicial careers, through ...
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UK right not to adopt EU justice measure, Lords committee says
European Union laws setting minimum rights for defendants and victims are in the interests of British citizens, but the government was right not to sign up to a Lisbon treaty proposal guaranteeing suspects access to a lawyer, a committee of peers has said. The Lords Justice ...
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Victim of a market-rigging cartel: watch this space
Competition regulators across Europe often rely on whistleblowers to uncover anti-competitive cartels. Often the whistleblowers are the cartelists themselves. But what happens when the self-incriminating statements are then required to be disclosed to the victims of the cartel to support claims for compensation? Since a decision of Europe’s highest court ...
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Immigration
Deportation - Exclusion of immigrant deemed to be conducive to public good RS (Uganda) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justices Rix, Etherton and Patten): 1 December 2011 ...